Global software major Wipro Technologies has set up a virtual innovation centre for testing services on Second Life, the popular virtual world, the IT bellwether said Thursday.
"The innovation centre, a replica of the original lab at our campus in the electronics city will provide a one-stop virtual view of our Internet Protocol (IP)-powered solutions," the company said in a statement.
Second Life is a free three-dimensional virtual world where users can socialise, connect and create using voice and text chat.
Wipro's solutions include consultancy, test lifecycle accelerators, certification for wireless fidelity and mobile handsets, test design solutions in banking, securities and point of sale, performance engineering and telecom testing.
According to Wipro vice-president for testing services C.P. Gangadharaiah, the centre will showcase innovative and IP solutions to customers and partners located across the globe besides providing a virtual tour of the testing labs.
"In a competitive world, it is essential to differentiate ourselves with our customers and partners using innovative resources. With this virtual centre, we hope to create an environment that has technology and testing transformational value," Gangadharaiah said.
The centre aims at incubating testing solution IPs, which ensure 40-50 percent cost and capital investments reduction for clients.
It also helps improve and optimise test processes and accelerate application release into the market with an estimated 35 percent effort savings across testing lifecycle.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Cost cutting, Layoffs in India, Satyam, severance package
Satyam to sweeten layoff terms
A majority of the 10,000 excess staff at Satyam Computer Services are set to be offered 40% of their salary for six months in what can be termed as a severance package being firmed up by the beleaguered IT firm.
The top management of Satyam, in consultation with its new owner Tech Mahindra, has prepared a list of around 10,000 employees, who have not been billed for over six months now. These employees are set to be offered 40% of their existing salary for six months, along-with medical insurance and provident fund. But they may eventually have to leave the firm. Non-billable employees have been short-listed, as they do not bring in any revenues to the IT firm.
Raju had hired more number of employees to inflate revenues and profits of the firm, and the economic downturn has only compounded Satyam’s woes, forcing Tech Mahindra to look at a separation package for the excess staff in the Hyderabad-based outsourcer. Senior industry leader Kiran Karnik, who was chosen by the government to be on the Satyam board and salvage the firm, said unless substantial steps were taken to contain costs, Satyam could go under and risk the jobs of all employees.
The board had suggested a number of options to the new management, including organisation-wide salary cuts, keeping employees on a virtual bench and sending them on a sabbatical. In the last two cases, the company would have to pay only part of the salary to these employees.
Vineet Nayyar, the CEO of Tech Mahindra and now whole time director on Satyam, declared that the company had an excess staff of around 10,000. The employee strength at Satyam is reckoned to be around 42,000. It is likely to drop to 32,000, if the proposed plan to create a “virtual pool” is implemented. Non-billable employees across all levels will be impacted, though entry and middle levels will see more exits.
“We recognise that we have to deal with the situation and are exploring the most humane ways to tackle this issue,” said T Hari, global head marketing, Satyam Computer Services.
The company is talking to a dozen out-placement firms to help people, who are laid off to find new jobs. It is also planning to tie-up with engineering colleges for PG courses and would fund employees, who wish to enrol in these programmes.
A few companies have also written to Satyam to take some employees on board. Employees, who have been identified for layoffs, will also have access to all the training programs offered by Satyam, said Mr Hari. The company plans to have financial counsellors to help out those whose exits are imminent.
Source: TheEconomicTimes
The top management of Satyam, in consultation with its new owner Tech Mahindra, has prepared a list of around 10,000 employees, who have not been billed for over six months now. These employees are set to be offered 40% of their existing salary for six months, along-with medical insurance and provident fund. But they may eventually have to leave the firm. Non-billable employees have been short-listed, as they do not bring in any revenues to the IT firm.
Raju had hired more number of employees to inflate revenues and profits of the firm, and the economic downturn has only compounded Satyam’s woes, forcing Tech Mahindra to look at a separation package for the excess staff in the Hyderabad-based outsourcer. Senior industry leader Kiran Karnik, who was chosen by the government to be on the Satyam board and salvage the firm, said unless substantial steps were taken to contain costs, Satyam could go under and risk the jobs of all employees.
The board had suggested a number of options to the new management, including organisation-wide salary cuts, keeping employees on a virtual bench and sending them on a sabbatical. In the last two cases, the company would have to pay only part of the salary to these employees.
Vineet Nayyar, the CEO of Tech Mahindra and now whole time director on Satyam, declared that the company had an excess staff of around 10,000. The employee strength at Satyam is reckoned to be around 42,000. It is likely to drop to 32,000, if the proposed plan to create a “virtual pool” is implemented. Non-billable employees across all levels will be impacted, though entry and middle levels will see more exits.
“We recognise that we have to deal with the situation and are exploring the most humane ways to tackle this issue,” said T Hari, global head marketing, Satyam Computer Services.
The company is talking to a dozen out-placement firms to help people, who are laid off to find new jobs. It is also planning to tie-up with engineering colleges for PG courses and would fund employees, who wish to enrol in these programmes.
A few companies have also written to Satyam to take some employees on board. Employees, who have been identified for layoffs, will also have access to all the training programs offered by Satyam, said Mr Hari. The company plans to have financial counsellors to help out those whose exits are imminent.
Source: TheEconomicTimes
Citigroup, Infosys, TCS, Wipro
Citi to stay with TCS, Wipro, drop Infosys
Citigroup, which sold its back-office captive centres to TCS and Wipro last year, plans to consolidate its outsourcing with these vendors in India, and drop others such as Infosys Technologies, India’s second-biggest software services exporter, reports Pankaj Mishra.
The Bangalore-based Infosys could see around $25 million of its annual revenues from Citi go to rivals like TCS and Wipro, according to an official at one of these companies, requesting anonymity.
Citibank has a $2.5-billion nind-year contract with TCS and a $500-million six-year contract with Wipro. However, since Infosys does not derive any significant revenues from Citi, the company is not expected to be hit severely. Infosys has bigger, over $50-million contracts with top US banks, including Bank of America and American Express.
“Citi’s entire infrastructure management, back office and maintenance work is being shifted to TCS and Wipro, including around $25 million worth of contract with Infosys,” the official said.
An Infosys spokeswoman declined to comment about a specific customer. TCS and Wipro officials also did not comment.
When contacted by ET on Thursday, Godwin Chellam, a spokesman for Citi did not offer any specific comments.
In a year when Citigroup plans to spend around 8% of its revenues on IT, unchanged from last year, the biggest US bank wants to sweat the buck more by working with fewer vendors handling more work at lower rates. According to an outsourcing expert, who requested anonymity, Citi wants to save over $1 billion in IT costs this year alone by integrating various systems and consolidating its supplier base.
Citibank sold its Indian back office business to TCS for around $505 million in October last year, and Citi Technology Services for around $127 million to Wipro in December last year. Both these transactions came with assured outsourcing business for the vendors. By selling off these non-core captive operations, bundled with long-term outsourcing contracts, Citi was able to get better rates from TCS and Wipro.
“In tough times, customers such as Citi can give you volume growth, but lower rates, they have better bargaining powers,” admitted a senior executive at one of the vendors working for Citigroup. He requested anonymity because he did not want to offer official comments about a customer’s outsourcing strategy.
Jagdish Rao, global technology head, Citi said in December last year that he would focus on reducing costs. “The focus is on how much more can we get out of the existing budget,” said Mr Rao. Citigroup outsources IT contracts to leading vendors such as IBM, TCS, Wipro and Infosys. “A large part of our IT budget is dedicated to infrastructure and application maintenance, and that will remain a mandatory spend,” he said.
While TCS gained a back office contract worth $2.5 billion over a period of nine years as part of the deal, Wipro signed a master service agreement with Citi for a six-year infrastructure management contract worth $500 million. “It could be twice as much of that amount over the next few years,” Mr Rao said. “As we face these challenges, there will be greater demand to move more work to offshore locations,” Mr Rao added.
The Bangalore-based Infosys could see around $25 million of its annual revenues from Citi go to rivals like TCS and Wipro, according to an official at one of these companies, requesting anonymity.
Citibank has a $2.5-billion nind-year contract with TCS and a $500-million six-year contract with Wipro. However, since Infosys does not derive any significant revenues from Citi, the company is not expected to be hit severely. Infosys has bigger, over $50-million contracts with top US banks, including Bank of America and American Express.
“Citi’s entire infrastructure management, back office and maintenance work is being shifted to TCS and Wipro, including around $25 million worth of contract with Infosys,” the official said.
An Infosys spokeswoman declined to comment about a specific customer. TCS and Wipro officials also did not comment.
When contacted by ET on Thursday, Godwin Chellam, a spokesman for Citi did not offer any specific comments.
In a year when Citigroup plans to spend around 8% of its revenues on IT, unchanged from last year, the biggest US bank wants to sweat the buck more by working with fewer vendors handling more work at lower rates. According to an outsourcing expert, who requested anonymity, Citi wants to save over $1 billion in IT costs this year alone by integrating various systems and consolidating its supplier base.
Citibank sold its Indian back office business to TCS for around $505 million in October last year, and Citi Technology Services for around $127 million to Wipro in December last year. Both these transactions came with assured outsourcing business for the vendors. By selling off these non-core captive operations, bundled with long-term outsourcing contracts, Citi was able to get better rates from TCS and Wipro.
“In tough times, customers such as Citi can give you volume growth, but lower rates, they have better bargaining powers,” admitted a senior executive at one of the vendors working for Citigroup. He requested anonymity because he did not want to offer official comments about a customer’s outsourcing strategy.
Jagdish Rao, global technology head, Citi said in December last year that he would focus on reducing costs. “The focus is on how much more can we get out of the existing budget,” said Mr Rao. Citigroup outsources IT contracts to leading vendors such as IBM, TCS, Wipro and Infosys. “A large part of our IT budget is dedicated to infrastructure and application maintenance, and that will remain a mandatory spend,” he said.
While TCS gained a back office contract worth $2.5 billion over a period of nine years as part of the deal, Wipro signed a master service agreement with Citi for a six-year infrastructure management contract worth $500 million. “It could be twice as much of that amount over the next few years,” Mr Rao said. “As we face these challenges, there will be greater demand to move more work to offshore locations,” Mr Rao added.
Vista wins bidding war for SumTotal
A testy bidding war between two buyout firms for SumTotal Systems, a Mountain View-based enterprise software company, ended Wednesday with Vista Equity Partners agreeing to pay a steep premium to buy the company for $160 million.
Less than two months after Vista opened bidding with an offer of $3.25 a share, SumTotal's board of directors announced Wednesday it had accepted Vista's latest offer of $4.85 a share.
In finalizing the deal, SumTotal agreed to pay a $6.67 million termination fee to Vista rival Accel-KKR, which had previously come to terms on a deal.
SumTotal makes "talent development solutions" and claims more than 1,500 business, governmental and nonprofit customers. Its stock price, which plummeted as the recession worsened, had been hovering near at $5 as recently as Sept. 12.
Less than two months after Vista opened bidding with an offer of $3.25 a share, SumTotal's board of directors announced Wednesday it had accepted Vista's latest offer of $4.85 a share.
In finalizing the deal, SumTotal agreed to pay a $6.67 million termination fee to Vista rival Accel-KKR, which had previously come to terms on a deal.
SumTotal makes "talent development solutions" and claims more than 1,500 business, governmental and nonprofit customers. Its stock price, which plummeted as the recession worsened, had been hovering near at $5 as recently as Sept. 12.
Layoffs in India
Job cuts at Maytas Infra
Maytas Infra, the listed company promoted by the family of Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju, is looking to rationalise its employee strength. Consequently, there would be some job cuts and inductions.
To this effect, Maytas board on Thursday reviewed the HR policies of the company to take stock of the situation. “There will be some job cuts and inductions in the company,” a company executive said, but declined to reveal the numbers.
Maytas board, chaired by government-appointed member K Ramalingam, reviewed the key issues of the company in the last two days. Among other things, the company discussed with some of its joint venture partners the infusion of funds and early completion of works.
To this effect, Maytas board on Thursday reviewed the HR policies of the company to take stock of the situation. “There will be some job cuts and inductions in the company,” a company executive said, but declined to reveal the numbers.
Maytas board, chaired by government-appointed member K Ramalingam, reviewed the key issues of the company in the last two days. Among other things, the company discussed with some of its joint venture partners the infusion of funds and early completion of works.
Google wins domain name case
Internet search giant Google has won a cybersquatting case at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) against an Indian who had tried to block the domain name 'googblog.com'.
According to the information available with the WIPO, Geneva-based WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center has ordered the transfer of domain name to the US-based search giant after Herit Shah of Gujarat offered to surrender the disputed name to Google.
Google had challenged the registering of domain name 'googblog.com' by Shah at WIPO stating that it was confusingly similar to its trademark on which the company has rights.
Cybersquatting is an illegal activity of buying and officially recording an address on the internet that is the name of an existing company or a well-known person, with the intention of selling it to the owner in order to make money.
As per the information available with the WIPO, Google filed the complaint against Shah on March 26 this year. However, the disputed name has been registered by Shah since September 25, 2008.
WIPO is a specialised agency of the United Nations for developing a balanced and accessible international system in the field of intellectual property rights.
The California-headquartered firm has been using the name 'GOOG' as a NASDAQ financial stock ticker since 2004. The company has used the trademark GOOGLE since the inception of its business in 1997.
The search giant operates a blog service under the brand 'Blogger'. As per the details available with WIPO, a pre-complaint correspondence between the parties (Google and Shah) failed to resolve the dispute.
However on May 2, after commencement of administrative proceedings, Shah stated before the panel that the registration of domain name was in bad faith and was an infringement of intellectual property.
"I was in a bad faith that I can legally keep the domain googblog.com ... I really did very unfair to Google. I sincerely apologise to Google for infringement, misuse of their intellectual property (GOOGBLOG.COM)," Shah stated.
The WIPO panel found in this case the consent-to-transfer request replaces the need to assess the matter under the elements of its Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy and ordered the transfer of the domain name to Google.
According to the information available with the WIPO, Geneva-based WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center has ordered the transfer of domain name to the US-based search giant after Herit Shah of Gujarat offered to surrender the disputed name to Google.
Google had challenged the registering of domain name 'googblog.com' by Shah at WIPO stating that it was confusingly similar to its trademark on which the company has rights.
Cybersquatting is an illegal activity of buying and officially recording an address on the internet that is the name of an existing company or a well-known person, with the intention of selling it to the owner in order to make money.
As per the information available with the WIPO, Google filed the complaint against Shah on March 26 this year. However, the disputed name has been registered by Shah since September 25, 2008.
WIPO is a specialised agency of the United Nations for developing a balanced and accessible international system in the field of intellectual property rights.
The California-headquartered firm has been using the name 'GOOG' as a NASDAQ financial stock ticker since 2004. The company has used the trademark GOOGLE since the inception of its business in 1997.
The search giant operates a blog service under the brand 'Blogger'. As per the details available with WIPO, a pre-complaint correspondence between the parties (Google and Shah) failed to resolve the dispute.
However on May 2, after commencement of administrative proceedings, Shah stated before the panel that the registration of domain name was in bad faith and was an infringement of intellectual property.
"I was in a bad faith that I can legally keep the domain googblog.com ... I really did very unfair to Google. I sincerely apologise to Google for infringement, misuse of their intellectual property (GOOGBLOG.COM)," Shah stated.
The WIPO panel found in this case the consent-to-transfer request replaces the need to assess the matter under the elements of its Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy and ordered the transfer of the domain name to Google.
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